Queerty said the film unfairly portrayed the Mattachine Society and Frank Kameny, "standing history on its head,"calling it "no credit to the history it purports to represent" and went on, in a caption, to call it "the year's most insulting film" and a "future camp classic."Towleroad's movie critic ended his review with, "Stonewall may have birthed Gay Pride but this Stonewall is a shame."

Friday, September 25, 2015

ALSO: Homophobic NE AG Don Peterson is denied an en banc hearing he requested in order to deprive a dying woman legal fees after she was forced to sue the state to recognize her legal same sex marriage.

Last summer, Nebraska Gov. and death penalty aficionado Pete Ricketts, who attended his sister's
gay wedding in Chicago but opposed gay marriage in Nebraska, told two
apparent lies in a press release following the landmark Supreme Court
ruling declaring gay marriage bans unconstitutional:

“The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken and ruled state same-sex marriage
bans to be unconstitutional. While 70 percent of Nebraskans approved our
amendment to our state constitution that defined marriage as only
between a man and a woman, the highest court in the land has ruled
states cannot place limits on marriage between same-sex couples. We will
follow the law and respect the ruling outlined by the court.”

The first lie was the assertion that 70% of Nebraskans disapproved of gay marriage. The actual figure, of course, was 70% of the people who went to the polls in 2000 to vote on the issue. Ricketts' second lie was his pledge to follow the law and respect the ruling.
From today's Omaha World-Herald:

The Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties
Union asked a Nebraska federal judge on Thursday to issue an injunction
ordering the state to list both same-sex spouses as parents on birth
certificates of children born to same-sex couples.

The Nebraska Department of Health
and Human Services has refused to “provide married same-sex couples
birth certificates for their children on the same terms and conditions
as married different-sex couples,” the ACLU wrote in court records.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled in late June that same-sex couples could marry, at least two
same-sex couples in Nebraska — including the Wagners — have been unable
to list both of their names on the birth certificates of their newborns.

In the high court’s ruling, the
ACLU said, birth certificates were listed as one of the many marital
protections that must be provided equally to married same-sex couples.

On Thursday, the Nebraska Office
of Vital Records and Statistics confirmed the birth certificate form is
still the same as it was before the same-sex marriage opinion.

“We continue to evaluate the
impact of the Supreme Court decision on programs within our agency,”
Leah Bucco-White, a spokeswoman for DHHS, wrote in an email.

The request is being reviewed by the Nebraska Attorney General's office.

Links to ABC's story about WebMD and the Mayo Clinic's web siteno longer seem to work.

And it's not just WebMD. The Mayo Clinic, the CDC, Planned Parenthood, and others all "share" your searches with 3rd parties. ABC did a segment on this, focusing on WebMD and the Mayo Clinic but links to the video seem to have stopped working.
Here's more from Motherboard:

Thursday, September 24, 2015

The former hedge fund manager and cofounder of the Turing Pharmaceutical company has received the lion's share of publicity for recent, outrageous drug price increases, but the problem ismuch larger.
Consider these recent increases in important life-saving drugs:

For many generic drugs, industry consolidation has left only one or two companies making a particular medicine. That's led to lengthy shortages for an increasing number of crucial medicines, driving up prices, particularly for drugs for infections, blood pressure and seizures. Even without shortages, prices have jumped tenfold or more for generics only made by one or two companies.

The blame for the status of the U.S. status as the most expensive place on earth to get medicinal drugs lies squarely at the threshold of the GOP and the pharmaceutical lobby. Said the Times in an editorial on Tuesday:

At
Republican insistence, that law barred the federal government from
negotiating with drug manufacturers. It relied on bargaining by private
insurers that manage drug benefits for Medicare patients, like
UnitedHealth, Aetna and CVS Caremark, to wring discounts from the drug
makers. That wasn’t enough.

The
Congressional Budget Office has long concluded that curbing Medicare
drug spending requires that federal officials have stronger tools, like
the power to offer preferential treatment to drug makers that offer big
discounts... Congressional
Republicans would no doubt balk at having the federal government
negotiate Medicare drug prices, but the public is clamoring for action,
and it’s the right thing to do.

It was a group of West Virginia academics and students working for the Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and Emissions (CAFEE), contacted by the
International Council on Clean Transportation to conduct real-world tests on light-duty diesel vehicleswho first smelled a rat when they took several cars on a road trip to evaluate the tailpipe emissions of diesel cars manufactured for the U.S. market by European auto makers, something on which no published academic research existed. They then alerted the EPA and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), who then did what government agencies should: due diligence. From Pete Bigelow at Autoblog:

The road trip was Volkswagen's undoing. When the West Virginia team returned to Los Angeles, they were befuddled by the test results. In theory, the Passat
should have spewed the lowest levels of pollutants among the three
cars. Equipped with the more modern selective catalytic reduction
technology, the team expected to find minimal levels of nitrogen oxide.
But the car, which had been certified at a California Air Resources
Board facility prior to the start of the road trip, had elevated levels
of NOx that were 20 times the baseline levels established beforehand.
The researchers, comprised of professors Gregory Thompson and Dan Carder
and students Marc Besch and Thiruvengadam, knew their on-board
equipment functioned properly because, early in their research, they had
double-checked its accuracy after recording sky-high NOx readings from
the Jetta
that showed 30 times the level of its baseline testing at the CARB
facility. It was particularly noteworthy because the Jetta contained the
first-generation Lean NOx Trap technology, not the more efficient SCR,
yet both produced large discrepancies. The BMW, on the other hand, performed as expected.

And how did the software know the vehicle was subjected to an EPA test so it could turn on the vehicle's emissions control equipment just for the test? ComputerWorld described how easy that would be:

...modern cars can sense when a hood is open for dynamometer testing, "so a smart hood switch could double as a defeat device." Or, another sensor could detect when a vehicle's traction control unit was disabled, which is required during emissions testing, and place the emission system into a different mode. "The possibilities are almost endless," [Arvind Thiruvengadam] told Autoblog. "I'm pretty sure that if you're one of the largest car manufacturers, you could do a lot more." According to the EPA's violation letter to Volkswagen, dated Sept. 18, "the position of the steering wheel, vehicle speed, the duration of the engine’s operation, and barometric pressure" -- all very specific indicators of an emissions test -- acted as the activation switch for the "defeat device".

Below, a 1997 VW ad for its Golf, aired during the coming out episode of Ellen. VW denied that the actors in the ad were depicting a gay couple and that settled any such suspicions because HEY! — would Volkswagen lie to you?

Monday, September 21, 2015

Truvada is a form of PrEP, a pre-exposure prophylaxis designed to prevent HIV infection.
A 61-year-old gay Boston attorney who is on Truvada and is HIV negative,has been denied long term care insurance by Mutual of Omaha. He's planning to sue Mutual and as a preliminary step, filed a complaint Wednesday with the Massachusetts Commission against Discrimination.
From the Associated Press:

He [the attorney] said he received a letter in April from a chief underwriter for
Mutual of Omaha denying his appeal. "We do not offer coverage to anyone
who takes the medication Truvada, regardless of whether it is prescribed
to treat HIV infection, or is used for pre-exposure prophylaxis. This
in accordance with our underwriting guidelines," the letter said,
according to the complaint. Doe alleges that Mutual of Omaha discriminated against him based on
sexual orientation and disability, in this case, an assumption that Doe
will in the future contract HIV, a health condition covered by the
state's antidiscrimination law.
Dr. Kenneth Mayer, a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of HIV Prevention Research at Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said he doesn't understand why
Mutual of Omaha would reject an applicant for long-term care insurance
because he is taking Truvada. "The last thing we want to do is discourage people from using this
preventive mediation," Mayer said. "The goal is to eradicate the number
of new HIV infections."

“Mutual of Omaha’s denial is nonsensical,” said Bennett Klein, Senior
Attorney and AIDS Law Project Director at GLAD. “If our client were not taking
Truvada, not protecting his health and the health of others, he would
have received the insurance. We should be well beyond the days when
insurers make decisions based on fear and stereotypes about HIV. The
assumption is that gay male sexuality is inherently risky and unhealthy,
and that’s just wrong.”

In 1998 Lambda Legal and the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago sued Mutual for capping HIV-related care at a fraction of the amount allowed for other illnesses or conditions.
In March of 2010, Mutual "amicably" settled a trademark lawsuit against the production company of Oprah Winfrey over the use of the phrase "Aha Moment." For decades, Mutual of Omaha sponsored a nationally-televised animal program entitled "Wild Kingdom," in which hosts Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler relentlessly plugged the security of Mutual's Life Insurance products via awkward seques. However a Mutual occupational underwriting guide in use well into the 1990s revealed that it was against company policy to underwrite life insurance for "wild animal handlers."

Friday, September 18, 2015

Huckabee, who dropped out of preacher school to break into radio, gets schooled by a GOP candidate with a law degree and Rick Santorum gets schooled by a GOP candidate about his personal bogeyman, "judicial supremacy."

TD Ameritrade scion Pete Ricketts, now Nebraska's GOP governor, didn't like the fact that the Nebraska Unicameral overrode his veto of its removal of the state's death penalty, so he spent $200,000 (and his father kicked in another $100,000) to a paid petition drive to put the law on hold and reinstate Nebraska's death penalty on the next election's ballot as a constitutional amendment.
Now his organization, Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, faces a lawsuit seeking to negate the signature drive because the organization played fast and loose with requirements of Nebraska's initiative statute, which requires that there be a sworn list of every sponsor.
Nebraskans for the Death Penalty calls the just-filed lawsuit by Nebraskans for Public Safety (a opposing group) over the violation "frivolous" and a "technicality," despite the fact that in 2003 the Nebraska Supreme Court quashed an initiative which would have legalized video keno games for exactly such "frivolous" reasons.
The World-Heraldnotes that Ricketts is also alleged in the lawsuit to have violated his oath of office by seeking to
overturn a state law, rather than working to uphold it.

“The governor’s sponsorship of
the referendum would show formally that rather than prepare to support,
enforce and execute this duly passed law, he has instead aligned
himself, his political allies and persons directly controlled and
organized by him and sponsored this referendum,” stated the lawsuit,
filed in Lancaster County District Court. “He has with his personal and family fortune largely financed the attempt to do away with a law he disfavors.” The lawsuit said the governor
told state lawmakers that if they didn’t uphold his veto of the death
penalty repeal, a referendum would be launched.

Ricketts was unavailable for comment as he is absent from the state again on a "trade mission" to China and Japan, shortly after returning from a similar jaunt through Europe.
Here's the press release from Nebraskans For Public Safety:

Nebraskans for Public Safety files lawsuit challenging death penalty referendum

September 17, 2015 - For Immediate Release Contact: Alan Peterson, General Counsel, Nebraskans for Public Safety, 402-416-3633 alanepeterson@gmail.comNEBRASKANS FOR PUBLIC SAFETY FILES LAWSUIT CHALLENGING DEATH PENALTY REFERENDUMLINCOLN, Neb – Nebraskans for Public Safety filed suit in Lancaster
County District Court today challenging the legal sufficiency of the
death penalty referendum petition. The suit was filed on behalf of
Lincoln residents and longtime death penalty opponents Christy and
Richard Hargesheimer who are taxpayers concerned about the petition
process. The named defendants are Secretary of State John Gale in his
official capacity, Aimee Melton, Bob Evnen, Judy Glasburner, and
Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, Inc. Click here to view a copy of the
initial filing: http://nebraskansforpublicsafety.org/uploads/Complaint_FILE_STAMPED.pdfThe legal team representing the Hargesheimers include some of
Nebraska’s leading and experienced attorneys: Alan Peterson, Jerry
Soucie, Amy Miller, and Christopher Eickholt. “All Nebraskans support our robust tradition of direct
democracy-including referendum campaigns. However, all Nebraskans also
want a fair process where everyone plays by the rules. In the case of
the death penalty referendum it is clear that Governor Ricketts and his
supporters failed to do their due diligence and appeared to have cut
corners. That undermines the integrity of the referendum process and
that has legal consequences,” said Alan Peterson, lead counsel. “We look forward to having our day in court and defending a fair
process for everyone. Nebraskans know the death penalty is broken beyond
repair and belongs in our past. Powerful interests like the Governor
are not entitled to their own set of rules to pursue their own political
objectives. We are looking forward to having these issues decided
outside of the political arena and before an impartial judiciary,” said
Christy Hargesheimer. Nebraskans for Public Safety is a campaign committee organized to
oppose the death penalty referendum. It is a statewide coalition
conducting public education on smart alternatives to the death penalty
-- such as life in prison without parole -- that put public safety
first. Members include fiscal conservatives, faith leaders, victims’
families, and traditional death penalty opponents. Visit our website or
follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Mayor Jean Stothert insisted before God* and KETV that doubling some meter rates, extending hours to 9 from 5 pm and charging people to park on Saturday was NOT a "money grab." (Unlike, perhaps, her administration's recent annexation binge.)
She claimed it was because parking administration costs the city more than it brings in.
Begging the Republican question: "Well, then, why don't you rip up the meters, sell Omaha's parking garages to private enterprise, and get the city out of the parking business?"
But we digress. While Stothert said one thing in her press conference, Ken Smith, the city's Parking Division manager, said something else to the World-Herald:"Our goal is to increase turnover outside businesses and free up spaces so that customers and visitors to the downtown area can more easily find parking spaces."
And what about people who work downtown?

Many downtown employees, such as wait staff at restaurants, are likely
to be less than thrilled about the changes. Asked about that Wednesday,
Smith predicted that the changes will benefit restaurant workers,
because easier parking would generate more customers.

Hi! We're Republicans from the government Stothert administration and we're here to help you get more customers!
Readers will note Stothert's exquisite sympathy for the flawed cognition of drivers circling the Old Market who might disagree with her assessment:
“We have enough parking spaces downtown,” Stothert said. “It’s just that people perceive we don’t.”
________________________________
*We don't know if Stothert actually goes to church regularly on Sundays, but she was so conspicuously pious while on Omaha's City Council in reciting prayers before meetings that you might have thought she mistook the governmental chamber for a chapel.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

This photo will do nothing to throw cold water on persistent rumors about Uncle Walt's supposed bi- or homosexuality. The picture was taken during a cartoonist's strike in 1941 during which Disney took out a full page ad in Variety attributing the malcontentedness on the Disney plantation to "communistic" influences and not the fact that some Disney artists made $12 a week with no overtime while others made hundreds. In his absence, Walt left union negotiations to his brother Roy, who gave the union commies nearly everything they asked for. When Walt returned, he had his secretary separate the strikers' files from those who didn't picket, for future retribution. The screencap is from this week's American Experience two-part bio on Disney.
One priceless moment from the documentary is film of Walt doing the voice-over for Mickey Mouse. Trust us, the clip is hilarious. We bet Walt was a riot in the sack with whomever he may or may not have slept with besides his wife.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

In the Senate, the so-called First Amendment Defense Act is called S. 1598. The House version, H.R. 2802, is sponsored by Jeff Fortenberry. Like much of what Sasse and Fischer and Fortenberry do and say, the bill is completely bogus. Here's what the New York Times wrote:

It would do many things, but one thing it would not do is defend the First Amendment. To the contrary, it would deliberately warp the bedrock principle of religious freedom under the Constitution. The bill, versions of which have been circulating since 2013, gained a sudden wave of support after the Supreme Courtlegalized
same-sex marriage nationwide. It is being hawked with the specter of
clergy members being forced to officiate such marriages. This is a ploy,
as the bill’s backers surely know: There has never been any doubt that
the First Amendment protects members of the clergy from performing
weddings against their will.

Attacking LGBTs in House:
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry

In reality, the
act would bar the federal government from taking “any discriminatory
action” — including the denial of tax benefits, grants, contracts or
licenses — against those who oppose same-sex marriage for religious or
moral reasons. In other words, it would use taxpayers’ money to negate
federal anti-discrimination measures protecting gays and lesbians, using
the idea of religious freedom as cover.For example,
a religiously affiliated college that receives federal grants could
fire a professor simply for being gay and still receive those grants. Or
federal workers could refuse to process the tax returns of same-sex
couples simply because of bigotry against their marriages...

If you thought the Wrecking Crew and the Funk Bros. dominated pop music in an unprecedented way in the 1960s, you haven't been paying attention to pop music today. From The Atlantic:

The biggest pop star
in America today is a man named Karl Martin Sandberg. ...Sandberg grew up in a remote suburb
of Stockholm and is now 44... He is responsible for more
hits than Phil Spector, Michael Jackson, or the Beatles.

Ater Sandberg come the bald Norwegians, Mikkel Eriksen and Tor
Hermansen, 43 and 44; Lukasz Gottwald, 42, a Sandberg protégé and
collaborator ...and another Sandberg collaborator named Esther Dean, 33, a
former nurse’s aide from Oklahoma who was discovered in the audience of a
Gap Band concert, singing along to “Oops Upside Your Head.” They use
pseudonyms professionally, but most Americans wouldn’t recognize those,
either: Max Martin, Stargate, Dr. Luke, and Ester Dean. ...Millions
of Swifties and KatyCats—as well as Beliebers, Barbz, and Selenators,
and the Rihanna Navy—would be stunned by the revelation that a handful
of people, a crazily high percentage of them middle-aged Scandinavian
men, write most of America’s pop hits. ...A short-attention-span
culture demands short-attention-span songs. The writers of Tin Pan Alley
and Motown had to write only one killer hook to get a hit. Now you need
a new high every seven seconds—the average length of time a listener
will give a radio station before changing the channel. “It’s not enough
to have one hook anymore,” Jay Brown, a co-founder of Jay Z’s Roc Nation
label, tells Seabrook. “You’ve got to have a hook in the intro, a hook
in the pre, a hook in the chorus, and a hook in the bridge, too.”

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Des Moines register is covering the backlash on twitter over Rep. Steve King's tweet saying "In 1963, we should not have honored SCOTUS decision to creat a wall of separation between prayer & school. Kim Davis for Rosa Parks Award." They have printed some of the milder comments. Us, we'll opt for the fiercer sass:

Monday, September 7, 2015

“She’s a hypocrite,” said criminal defense attorney Sharon Liko. “She’s applying for the job of a martyr. She wants to practice her faith by not issuing marriage licenses. Yet, she will not agree to let the deputy county clerks issue marriage licenses even if it’s okay with their faith.”
It didn't end there. Davis's legal defense, by Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel was called "ridiculously stupid."
And it didn't end there either because even America's most famous redneck political commenters are now cheerfully mocking Kim Davis.

Today, County Attorney Cecil Watkins said, in an interview with Kentucky Trial News, that KIM DAVIS has been coercing deputy clerks who are willing to issue same sex marriage licenses, into not doing so. Her rationale is, apparently, that it's all about her. Since her name appears on the certificate, no one else can issue one either, regardless of their religious convictions. And opposite sex couples can't get married either, because then KIM DAVIS would be discriminating solely against gays and it would (slightly) weaken her court defense. Today, Thursday, is martyr-palooza day as it is KIM's federal contempt of court hearing.

Couples who sued in many states are now pursuing further orders,
including an award of lawyers’ fees. In response, Nebraska’s lawyers
have now gone further than other states have, seeking en banc review of
the dispute by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.A three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit on August 11 rejected Nebraska’s argument that the Nebraska case, Waters v. Ricketts,
was now moot and should be dismissed without a final order in the
couples’ favor. The panel said that the Supreme Court had only struck
down four states’ bans specifically — not including Nebraska’s — and did
not rule on any couples’ right to state benefits that go with marriage.
Like other couples, the seven couples in that state had sued not only
to get the chance to marry, but to gain its benefits.
While noting that state officials had assured the Eighth Circuit that
they stopped enforcing that state’s ban as soon as the Supreme Court
had ruled, the panel said the state had not yet “repealed or amended”
its ban. “Nebraska’s assurances of compliance…do not moot the case,” it
declared...

Nevertheless, Peterson now wants an en banc review of the three-judge, Eighth Circuit panel's rejection of his arguments, meaning that he wants to waste the time of eight judges, not just three.And you'll be footing part of the bill for Peterson's never-say-die, money-is-no-object, radical right wing agenda, Nebraska taxpayers.

The AFL-CIO gay subgroup Pride at Work has had it with what it sees as the Human Rights Foundation's relentless indulgence of two-faced corporatism in respect of the treatment of LGBT employees via HRC's Corporate Equality Index. From the Advocate:

...Pride at Work executive director Jerame Davis explains to The Advocate.
“Union contracts that include LGBT nondiscrimination policies not only
require a company to have a policy on the books, but they also force a
company to adhere to those policies in a real way. A union collective
bargaining agreement gives workers a process by which they can address
discrimination and unfair work practices with their employer that other
workers simply don’t have. When more than half of the states in the
union do not protect workers on the basis of sexual orientation or
gender identity or expression, union-busting is very much an LGBT issue,
but HRC apparently doesn’t see it that way.”

...“What’s more, the CEI doesn’t account for a corporation’s
compliance with their own policies,” continues Davis. “HRC will readily
admit they have no ability to verify that the policies they grade in the
CEI are actually followed by the company. So, not only do they not
grade employers on their willingness to let workers organize a union,
they have no actual means of ensuring these companies they give high
marks are actually treating their LGBT workers with the dignity and
respect they deserve.”

You can read Pride At Work's anti-HRC resolution at the Advocate by clicking on the top link. We were unable find it Wednesday on Pride At Work's website, if it exists there at all.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Read the entire piece at the New York Times' editorial page editor's bloghere.

To quote Justice Antonin Scalia in a recent case involving another First Amendment claim of religious freedom, “This is really easy.”

In short, Ms. Davis
has no right, constitutional or otherwise, to refuse to do the job
Kentucky pays her to do. As a municipal official, she is required to
issue marriage licenses to anyone who may legally get married. Since
June 26, when the Supreme Court ruled
that the Constitution forbids states to ban same-sex marriage, that
population includes April Miller, Karen Roberts, David Ermold and David
Moore — the two couples she rebuffed on Tuesday.

The Davises don’t seem
to understand the two-sided game they’re playing, appealing to the
Constitution even as they violate it. Perhaps they forgot that the First
Amendment protects the people from the government, not the other way
around... it’s worth
repeating once again: No one is telling Ms. Davis what she may or may
not believe, or how to live her own life in accord with the dictates of
her conscience and her God. What they are saying is that as an employee
and representative of the government, she lives under the law, not above
it.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that James Yates and Will Smith on Friday asked Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins to
prosecute Davis for official misconduct due to her recent refusal to issue ANY marriage licenses, a request he referred to Attorney General Jack Conway’s
office because Watkins is defending two suits filed against the county. Also:

A motion was filed Tuesday, asking U.S. District Judge David Bunning to
hold Davis in contempt. Bunning scheduled a contempt hearing for 11 a.m.
Thursday in Ashland. At that time, the gay couples will have to present
evidence, which could include testimony from Davis herself. Bunning
would then decide on punishment. That could include fines, jail time or
both, but the motion asks the judge

Below, a second couple, David Moore and David Ermold, whose marriage license application also was rejected a fourth time this morning by Kim Davis' office, demand that Davis issue them a marriage license.

Public
opinion, according to WKYT's nonscientific poll, is not running in
favor of County Clerk Kim Davis, the devout traditional marriage advocate who has
been married four times.

Maynard (Bob "Gilligan's Island" Denver) slyly flashes a nipple to the CBS eye while trying to talk his best buddy Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hick­man) into taking off all his clothes. Whoever said 1950s television was a vast waste­land obviously didn't know where to look.